thoughts on this rig?

Dan87 · 22 Aug 2011 at 22:14

CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K OC@ 4.7Ghz
CPU Cooler: Corsair H60 Water Cooler
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z68A-D3
Memory: 8.0GB Corsair DDR3 1600mhz XMS3 (4x 2GB)
HD: Crucial 64GB SSD S-ATAIII 6.0Gb/s
Second hard drive: NEW! 1TB S-ATAIII 6.0Gb/s
Optical Drive: 22x DVD±RW DL S-ATA
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 1,536MB
Sound card: Onboard 7.1 Audio
Case: NZXT Hush 2 Silent White
PSU: 700W Xigmatek

Monitor: LG 22' E2240S-PN LED

stulid · 22 Aug 2011 at 22:17

Was working my way down the list, thinking "thats good" "great".

I got to the PSU and thought "hmmmm" so went and checked some reviews of Xigamatek 700W PSU's and the reviews are good

Serikiito · 22 Aug 2011 at 22:20

Pretty good rig. However, onboard audio?

Dan87 · 22 Aug 2011 at 22:23

Thanks for the replys

I thought onboard Audio would do. bad idea you think?

stulid · 22 Aug 2011 at 22:28

Dan87 said:
I thought onboard Audio would do. bad idea you think?

Its a lot better than the crummy old days.

Modern onboard sound chips are well featured, good quality and dont take much cpu resources.

Dan87 · 22 Aug 2011 at 22:30

That's what I thought, soundcards have always caused more hassle than anything in my experience, with their stupid drivers always messing up somehow

Serikiito · 22 Aug 2011 at 22:39

Dan87 said:
Thanks for the replys

I thought onboard Audio would do. bad idea you think?

I heard an Asus sound card for £20 is pretty good.

Seems a shame you have a pretty good rig but skimp on the sound card

mickyflinn · 22 Aug 2011 at 22:43

If you do purchase a sound card what would be your budget?

Dan87 · 22 Aug 2011 at 22:48

my budget was £1200 - ended up spending £1250 including the monitor.

I know what you're saying serikiito

I could have just got an ok soundcard, I think it's just my own personal experiences with soundcards and them not really seeming worth it to me, like stulid said, onboard sound does the job and doesn't use much resources.

I wouldn't notice the diff between having one and not, I think

mickyflinn · 22 Aug 2011 at 23:05

I beg to differ, onboard sound has come along way but so has sounds cards. If your using quality speakers a soundcard would make a vast improvemnt.

You could also SLI 2 GTX 560 costing aprox £270 against GTX 580 costing £350 which would not only save enough money for a decent sound card but out perform the gtx 580.

QUOTE FROM TOMS HARDWARE GUIDE

The fastest graphics card with a single GPU, Nvidia's GeForce GTX 580 challenges AMD's former flagship, the dual-GPU Radeon HD 5970. The GeForce GTX 580 wins its share of battles against the previously undisputed king-of-the-hill. And while it's outperformed by more modern dual-card solutions like Radeon HD 6870s in CrossFire and GeForce GTX 560s in SLI, it scores a well-deserved place on the honorable mention list.

LINK
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-performance-radeon-geforce,2997-6.html

Dan87 · 22 Aug 2011 at 23:31

I will be mainly using headphones, might use my (very standard) speakers once in a while to watch the odd film, but I'm not really wanting amazing home cinema like sound and don't own fancy speakers

And I read that SLI 560's had the upper hand in 1 or 2 games over the 580, but am happy to settle with the 580 and maybe grab another one in the future.

stulid · 22 Aug 2011 at 23:33

Dan87 said:
I

And I read that SLI 560's had the upper hand in 1 or 2 games over the 580, but am happy to settle with the 580 and maybe grab another one in the future.

You cant do SLI.

The PSU is not powerful enough, for SLI GTX580's you want a good 850W in there.

And also the motherboard only supports Crossfire.

Just stick to single card setups.

Dan87 · 22 Aug 2011 at 23:34

Fair call. (silly me)

stulid · 22 Aug 2011 at 23:51

Dan87 said:
Fair call. (silly me)

Dont worry about it, a GTX580 is the fastest single gpu card anyways, so i dont think its likely to struggle.

Reaper 392 · 23 Aug 2011 at 00:16

so is that what you have now, or are planning to buy?

if its what you have now then its great as stulid has said. if your planning to buy it you could probably get a little bit better stuff for the money.

Dan87 · 23 Aug 2011 at 00:30

Me either Stulid

@ Reaper; Well I ordered it today @ 5pm, so I'm sure if I phoned them tomorrow I could change the order.

what are your suggestions?

stulid · 23 Aug 2011 at 00:35

Dan87 said:
Me either Stulid

@ Reaper; Well I ordered it today @ 5pm, so I'm sure if I phoned them tomorrow I could change the order.

what are your suggestions?

Its a pre-built pc i take it?

Dan87 · 23 Aug 2011 at 00:38

It was, but I customized the order, adding the H60 Water Cooler, extra ram, changing the GPU and PSU

stulid · 23 Aug 2011 at 00:39

Dan87 said:
It was, but I customized the order, adding the H60 Water Cooler, extra ram, changing the GPU and PSU

Apart from the motherboard, and the PSU (which is still good by the way) just a bit weak for SLI (GTX580's), theres nothing much to change.

What are the motherboard and PSU options?

Reaper 392 · 23 Aug 2011 at 00:49

stulid said:
Apart from the motherboard, and the PSU (which is still good by the way) just a bit weak for SLI (GTX580's), theres nothing much to change.

What are the motherboard and PSU options?

the motherboard cant do SLI properly anyway, so whats the problem with the PSU not being able to cope with that?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-346-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990

@DaN: the only thing i;d have changed is the motherboard so you could do lucid virtu and possibly SLI. depending on your budget i'd have gone for the Asrock Z68 pro 3 or the Asus P8Z68-V